Riding my bike, doing stuff off my bike

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Two months post-break…

Two months after breaking my elbow, and I’m very definitely cycling again.

My first time on a bike post-accident was in Morocco. “Team Velo” hired four of the worst bikes known to man, and rode about the city. Part of the rim disintegrated while I was riding and got lodged in my brakes. It wasn’t a big deal, neither the brakes nor the gears worked anyway.

I bought a new bike. She is called Ivy, thanks to her christmassy paint job. She did have a sticker but I had to take it off as it was very offensive.

The six weeks I wasn’t riding saw some lovely weather. Sunshine, bright skies, and I was stuck on a bus. The six weeks since starting to ride again have included the wettest April on record. I am perpetually soaked. It’s three pairs of socks a day kind of weather.

I’ve done very few long rides. I went out to Kent, got as far as Gravesend, thought to myself “what a shithole”, and came back.

I’ve done a few very drunken rides. Two that I actually don’t recall, except that I found myself riding around in circles in Peckham bus station (Peckham bus station is not on my way home). Another that was fine at the time, but left me with a hangover so bad that I toppled off the bike the next day. I’m going to do more sober cycling.

Having a broken elbow has actually helped my riding, as I’m more conscious of my arm positioning, on my road bike at least. Then again, when I had my bike fitting, the man pointed to the life-size poster of Eddy Merkx he had on the wall and said “you just need to look like that”. I’m not quite there yet.